It is well known that the residents of Austria traveled significantly less in the first quarter of 2021 due to lockdowns. This is now also confirmed by the broadcasting and telecommunications authority RTR. Accordingly, roaming usage has decreased significantly.

“In a year-on-year comparison, this is the lowest value in the last three years and is probably due to two factors: due to the pandemic, there were only a few international business trips and in the first quarter people traditionally tend not to go abroad on vacation. The situation is similar with roaming SMS and roaming data volume. 1 million roaming SMS were sent - this is the lowest value so far. 3,3 petabytes of data volume was consumed abroad, which is also a significant decrease in a year-on-year comparison,” says Klaus M. Steinmaurer, RTR's Managing Director for the Telecommunications and Post department.

The RTR Roaming Monitor is published twice a year and contains extensive market data on roaming. It is divided into the two main areas "Roaming in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA)" and "Roaming outside the EU/EEA". The content focuses on retail roaming and wholesale roaming.

"Outside the EU and the EEA, Austrians used their mobile phones for a total of 1 million minutes in the first quarter of 2021; in the first quarter of 7,1 it was more than twice as many at 1 million minutes," Steinmaurer adds Data is known and concludes, "As soon as there is an easing of the Corona situation, travel activity, especially in the business segment, is likely to pick up again and with it, of course, the demand for roaming services!"